(January)
Happy New Year!!
Welcome to 2018! The year has kick started with damp, dreary, miserable days full of rain and Storm Dylan (very strange name for a bit of wind), but I have been travelling back in time looking through my blog posts for 2017 and remembering sunny summer days, blistering hot holidays and days spent with family and friends.
This will be my 8th year of blogging- having published my first post on 10th January 2011- and I find it a great way of remembering the things that I have achieved throughout the year, as well as the little moments that are captured on camera and then forgotten; bees on flowers, aeroplane trails on a blue sky, sunsets and sunrises.
(February)
This year I have been focusing a lot on my Stitchscapes, which are still worked around a full time job and take up all of my spare time and energy. In January the Snowy Alps, and Moonlight Reflections stitchscapes were completed, and February saw the arrival of the Moorland and Heather 'scapes. Between these I somehow squeezed in a lot of crochet (on the bus if I remember correctly), making several things for display at work, and my Moorland CAL blanket whilst joining in with other blog readers following Lucy at Attic24.
(March)
In March I moved into my new studio space which I think was a big milestone as it's a space I can leave things out and they won't be moved! Before the studio I was completing stitchscapes and they would be immediately packed away into boxes and put in a cupboard, never to be seen again, in the interest of keeping the house tidy. In the studio, I can display them how I want, move them around, leave my tools out on the table.... utter bliss.
(April)
I think this is one of my favourite months. As a family we visited lots of different places; Standen, Nymans and the Weald & Downland Living Museum, which are all so inspiring and full of the most amazing plants- especially Standen as we went during the Tulip festival and every space you looked in was stuffed with brightly coloured tulips in all shapes and sizes.
I also completed the Bluebell Woods and Flowing River stitchscapes, along with another set of Stitchscape Minis.
(May)
May is full of memories of the sea. The Parents and I went to Hastings for fish and chips along the seafront, walking through the ramshackle fisherman huts and the slightly rusty boats to the best chip shop in town (it said so in the window). Moon Flower Town, Cow Parsley and Dry Stone Meadow were all additions to the collection in this month- highly productive!
(June)
Family weddings, an awe-inspiring trip to Sorrento (especially Pompeii) and my first art/craft exhibition with Bridge Arts in Uckfield kicked off the summer months. I also managed to stitch up four stitchscapes! Sorrento Sunrise, Gold Rush, Emerald Isle and Incoming Tide ready for future craft fairs as I really caught the bug.
(July)
Marwell Zoo, a trip to London and The Natural History Museum came in July, along with another craft exhibition at Bridge Cottage during the Uckfield Festival. I've had some very encouraging and enthusiastic comments at my craft fairs and I am very thankful for them as they keep me going. I will always want to sew and would probably continue my stitchscapes even if my adventure with them doesn't lead anywhere, but the kind and supportive comments I have received in this last year have really made me want to take them further and see where it will take me.
(August)
In August we had The Mother's big birthday, and a day out at Waddesdon Manor to celebrate, at her request. The rest of the time was spent mostly with the usual routine, apart from a day trip to Brighton beach on my own, and lazy weekends in the sunshine at home. The stitchscapes became a lot more wintry as I started thinking about my upcoming November craft fairs and the C*******s present buying rush.
(September)
Our holiday to Star in Wales was very eventful with pretty terrible weather- even for Wales! Our holiday home became stranded in flood waters for a morning and we had the most amazing sky scenes when it wasn't actually raining where we were, as the rest of the sky filled with terrible threatening clouds. Autumn really kicked in during September. I also cracked on in the studio, organising and packaging new card designs and trying to take inventory of what I had to update my Etsy shop.
(October)
The Mother and I travelled up to the Alexandra Palace Knitting & Stitching show (one of my birthday presents), which is always such an amazing event- and so bad for my bank balance!. We also had our second little craft fair at Bridge Cottage, which is a very sweet venue but with very bad lighting. I carved pumpkins, made pumpkin muffins, mounted all of my Stitchscape minis to be framed in their own tiny box frames, and started making stitchscape Christmas decorations; 10cm hoops with a loop of lace to be hung up on Christmas trees. I loved making these, they were so quick and easy, and reminded me of why I started stitchscape-ing in the first place. No pressure to do something fantastic, just the fabric to follow with whatever I wanted and see where it goes.
(November)
This was a very exciting month for Dotty Textiles, we had another craft fair at Barnsgate Manor which was fantastic and freezing! We also opened up shop in a new premises called Tunbridge Wells Artisans (TWA) which is very exciting. The location is a little strange and there is unfortunately no on-site parking, but the building is well worth visiting as there is so much in there from so many talented artists- plus the pub next door does amazing fish finger sandwiches.
(December)
During December I had a couple of Christmas commissions to finish which thankfully all went well and completed on time. Elves, Angus & Flora, also returned to make sure that we prepared properly for Christmas, causing chaos and hilarity in their wake. We have very strong traditions in our family during this time, from the way we open our stockings on Christmas morning, the breakfast and family present opening routine (waiting for Dad to make his coffee, throwing the wrapping paper at bin bags on the floor and tormenting the cat with scraps of paper), and the extended family present opening routines. Each side of the family approaches Christmas in a totally different way, and we alternate which side we go to first- sometimes present opening is slow and takes several hours as we open them one by one, and sometimes it's over in ten minutes as there's a general free-for-all. It's lovely and exciting.
So, I go into the new year with some new ideas- the little Christmas hoops made in October/November time have inspired me to try some slightly larger hoops in a more scene-like way, and I am totally loving these! I also have a prospective new outlet to display some of my stitchscapes which I will look into more later on in January.
I hope that you can all look back at your year and find many fond memories to make you smile. I wish you all the very best for 2018! x
No comments:
Post a Comment